Bottle carrier



BOTTLE CARRIER Filed May 21', 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Jan. 9, 1962 F. A.CHIDSEY, JR 3,016,182

BOTTLE CARRIER Filed May 21, 1959 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Z6 5 9- 7 ii 1 h *1?23 zW .33 g] I 23 l a .3 x

! 1'10. 35 NF Z9 1 y 25; -r" I United States Patent 3,016,182 BOTTLECARRIER Francis A. Chidsey, Jr., Wayne, Pa., assignor to ContainerCorporation of America, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Delaware FiledMay 21, 1959, Ser. No. 814,888

1 Claim. (Cl. 229-40) The present invention relates'to folding cartonsand more particularly to cartons of open end, wrap-around style designedto carry two rows of bottles. Animportant object of the invention is toprovide an improved open end, wrap-around style carrier for bottles,having supplemental retaining means at one or both open ends which willtend to prevent accidental disengagement of the bottles from thecarrier;

A further object is to provide a form of partition for a carrierdesigned for two rows of bottles, such partition being of economical andconvenient form, capable of being quickly set up from flat form andassembled with rows of openings 15, 15 through which the-necks of thebottles 16, 16 may extend. SeeFIG. l. The top Q includes two slopingportions 10a, 10a defined from the two rows of bottles which are to bewrapped within an open end carrier.

Additional objects andadvantages of the present invention will becomeapparent as the description proceeds. "Inthe drawings-- FIG. 1 is asideelevational view of an open end carrier of the type having top openingsto receive the necks of the bottles and openings in the lower portionsof 'the side walls to receive a part of the curved surfaces at the lowerends of the bottles;

FIG. 2 is an end elevational view showing the bottles in place and beingseparated by the partition of the present invention and also showing thecentral end retaining member at one end of the carrier; 1

FIG. 3 is a horizontal cross-sectional view taken along line 3-3 of FIG.2;

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view on an enlarged scale takenalong line 4..4 of FIG. 2 looking down on one of the upfolded retainingmeans;

FIG. 5 is a fragmentary perspective view of the bottom portion of thecarrier;

, FIG. 6 is a'perspective view of the partition member in its setupcondition;

FIG. 7 is a plan view of the, carrier blank as it appears when laid outflat; and t FIG. 8 is a plan view of the partition blank.

The carton of the present invention as herein disclosed is made from anelongated, rectangular, paperboard blank providing a top panel which mayhave openings to admit the necks of bottles, thetop panel may havesloping corner portions to conform to the shoulders of the bottles. Thesloping corner portions connect with side walls connecting in turn withbottom sections. :As herein illustrated the bottom sections are securedin overlapping relation centrally of the composite bottom panel.

At each of the open ends of the carton an upstanding retaining member isprovided to insure retention of the bottles. These retaining memberscomprise triangular flaps formed by folding upward the 'adjacentcornersof the bottom sections and securing the flaps in raised position bymeans of hinged tabs carried by the triangular flaps.

Referring more particularly to the drawings, the, blank from which acarrier ofthe present invention may be made is shown in FIG. 7. -Thisblank is cut from ,foldable paperboard, preferably of elongatedrectangular shape, and-is die cut and crease scored to provide a centralor top panel-10,-side wall-panels 11 and 12 and two bottom sections 13and 14 designed to be joined in overlapping relation to form a compositebottom panel. The carrier as shown is constructed to hold bottles andwhile the invention is particularly suitable for bottles it is also mainportion 10 by fold lines 17, 17 and from the side wall panels by foldlines 18, 18. These portions 10a generally conform to the slope of therounded shoulders of thebottles. I

The side wall panels at the lower part of the carrier have inwardlysloping portions 11a and 12a each having three die cut openings 19 and20 which are of crescent shape to receive a portion of the curvedperiphery of the lower ends of the bottles. The sloping portionsaredefined from the side and bottom .panels by fold lines 23 and 24. Thefold lines 24 are preferably interrupted adjacent each crescent shapedopening to provide for the rigid extended portions 25, 25 on the bottompanels. By interrupting these fold lines the portions 25, 25 are leftdisposed in the planes of their attached bottom panels.

It is to be noted that, when the bottom panels are folded to assume aright angular relationship'with the side walls, the openings 19. and 20become semi-circular. See FIGS. 1 and 5. r

The bottom panels 13 and 14 are designed in the present instance to besecured in overlapping relation to form a composite bottom panel. Means,are'provided on the ends of this composite bottom panel for positivelyretain ing bottles within the carrier even if the retaining openings forthe bottles shouldbecome enlarged or torn by rough handling. For thispurpose the'adjacent corner portions of the companion bottom sectionsare cut and folded to provide upwardly foldable retaining flaps andthesflap on at least one of the sections carries a tab adapted to. besecured to the flap on the other sectiontto hold the flaps in fixed,up-folded condition. As shown in FIG. 7, there is'formed at the cornersof each bottom section 13 and 14 a triangular flap. These are designatedat 27, 27 on section 13 andat 28, 28 on section 14.

On each triangular fiapis formed a hinged tab,- indicated at 29, 29 and30, 30 on the respective'flaps 27, 27 and 28, 28. The flaps are definedfrom their attached sections by fold lines 31; 31 and 32, 32, and eachtab is defined from its attached flap by fold lines preferably extendingat a right angle to the flap fold line; These fold lines are indicatedat 33, 33 and 34,34. The tabs are severed from the bottom sections alongslits 35, 35 and 36, 36 which, in the present instance, are aligned withthe fold lines between the flaps and the bottom sections.

The retaining members provided by the up folded flaps are brought intoposition and secured as the final operation after two rows of bottleshave been enclosed within the carrier. Adhesive is applied to the areaof. one ofthe bottom section edge portions, preferablyalongthe fullwidth of their overlap. Adhesive is thus applied to the opposite flapsand tabs on one bottom section. As shown in. FIG. 5 it may be assumedthat adhesive has been applied to the upper surface of the marginal edgeportion of bottom section 14. 'The surfaces of the two sets of fiaps andtabs at the edges of section 14 Will also be covered withadhesive, Withthe bottles in place within the carrier the bottom section 13 will firstbe folded against the bottoms of the bottles, followed by the fold ingof section 14 against section 13. Inward and upward pressure is thenapplied to the ,fold lines 34,341of, the underlying flaps and tabs 28and 30 at each end of the bottom. The flaps 28 will thus be broughtsubstantially to upright position and will cause the overlying flapsalso to be raised to upright position. The tabs 30 will move againstwhat are now the outwardly directed faces of the flaps 27 and the tabs29 on flaps 27 will be disposed against the inwardly directed faces ofthe flaps 28. By a suitable control of the dimensions of the flaps andtabs as well as their positioning with respect to the contours of thepackaged bottles, the tabs 27 will be wedged in place between the tabs28 and the adjacent bottles as indicated in FIG. 3.

The glued portions of the bottom sections and the upraised flaps andtabs are then held in contact in any suitable manner until the adhesivehas set. The assembled flaps and tabs thus become fixed bottle retainingmembers at the opposite ends of the composite bottom panel.

In order to remove bottles easily from the carrier a pair of closelyspaced weakened lines 38, 38 may be formed in one of. the side wallsherein shown as side wall 11. By tearing out the strip 39 between theweakened lines the top portion of the carrier may be disengaged from thebottle necks thus giving ready access to the bottles.

Finger openings 40, 40 may be cut in the top panel for convenience incarrying the package. 1 A divider or partition member is preferablyemployed to separate the bottles within the carrier. This may be madefrom an elongated blank 42 formed with a plurality of transverse,parallel fold lines 43, 44, 45, 46, 47 and 48 and foldable along alongitudinal fold line 49 which is interrupted by slits 50 and 51extending between the fold lines 43 and 45 and the fold lines 46 and 48respectively. The fold lines thus define a plurality of panels indicatedat 52, 52a to 58, 58a, inclusive. In order to set up the partitionmember it is first folded along fold line 49 to bring the two halves ofthe blank in face-to-face contact. The pairs of adjacent panels 53, 54and 53a, 54a are folded outward and brought together in face-to-facerelation, this being possible by reason of the slit 50, Likewise panels56, 57 and 56a, 57a are brought together in the same manner to completethe partition member as shown in FIG. 6.

Thewidth of the partition panels 55 and 55a conforms to the diameter ofbottles to be packed in the carrier. The other panels, however, may havea width just suflicient to extend a short distance beyond the verticallines of contact of the bottles with the partitions. The construction ofthe retaining members and partition panels is preferably such that theouter edges of the pairs of end panels 52, 52a and 58, 58a willterminate short of edge contact with the fold lines 33 and 34 of theretaining members.

The carrier blanks and partition blanks are preferably delivered in flatform to the user who may set them up and package bottles as needed. Thepackaging operation may be carried out by machine or manually Aconvenient method is to set up the partition and place the bottles insurrounding relation to the partition as they appear in FIG. 3. Thecarrier blank may then be folded along one group of fold lines 17, 18 sothat panels 11 and 13 may lie flat on a support with the remainder ofthe blank at right angles-thereto. The bottle group is then moved towardthe top panel to insert the bottle necks into the openings 15. Theremaining side and bottom panels will then be brought down to a positionparallelto the other side and bottom panel. Adhesive may then be appliedto an edge portion of one of the bottom panels, such as panel 14 aspreviously described. Bottom panel 13 will then be folded againstthebottoms of the bottles and panel 14 will be folded against panel 13.Pressure is then applied to the outer most flap 28 and its tab 30 ateach end of the composite bottom panel. The adhesive on the surfaces ofthe flaps 28 and tabs 30 will then cause their adherence to thecompanion flaps 27 and tabs 29 on the other bottom panel section, As

above explained, the tab 29 will contact an end bottle and it will thusbe held in place to permit the flap 28 to remain in firm contactwithsuch tab. As soon as the adhesive has set the package is complete.

From the foregoing it is apparent that the present invention provides animproved form of open-end, wraparound carrier, particularly adapted forpackaging of bottles. By employing the fixed retaining members at theends of the composite bottom panel the bottles tend to be held withinthe carrier even though the retaining openings for the bottles maybecome unduly enlarged or torn. By. the use of the retaining membersherein disclosed it is feasible to employ paperboard of lower test andof lesser caliper than is indicated for carriers without the retainingmembers. By employing the partition member disclosed erein with the endretaining members the bottles within the carrier are held securely andthe likelihood of the bottles becoming broken in transit is greatlyreduced.

While the present description sets forth a preferred embodiment of theinvention, various changes may be made in the construction withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention, and it is therefore desiredthat the present embodiment be considered in all respects asillustrative and not restrictive, reference being had to the appendedclaims rather than to the foregoing description to indicate the scope ofthe invention.

I claim:

An open-end carrier, for holding two parallel rows of containers havingupper portions projecting out of the carrier arranged in side-by-siderelation, formed from a unitary blank of suitable sheet material such asfoldable paperboard, comprising: a pair of vertically spaced parallel'top and bottom horizontal wallsinterconnected by a pair of horizontallyspaced vertical side walls to form a. tubular construction open at anend; said top wall including a panel having a' plurality of openingstherein arranged and disposed to permit upper portions of saidcontainers to project upwardly therethrough out of the carrier; saidbottom wall including a pair of generally fiat panels hingedly connectedat their outboard edges to respective side walls and having inboardlyadjacent their inboard edges marginal portions disposed in overlappingrelation with, and adhesively secured to each other; and a centralretaining member formed of the overlapping marginal portions of saidpanels at an end of the carrier between said rows of containers forpreventing the accidental movement of the containers out of said end ofthe carrier; said retaining members including a pair of triangular flapson adjacent inboard corners of the panels each being' formed by a foldline extending diagonally across said panel corner, said flaps beingadapted to be folded to upright position, at least one of said flapsincluding a hinged tab formed by a tap fold line in the flap extendingfrom a free outer edge of the flap to said flap fold line and a slit insaid flap fold line extending from a free outer edge of the flap to saidtab fold line, said tab being adapted, when the companion flaps ofrespective panels are folded to raised position, to be adhesivelysecured flatwise against the flap on the companion panel and therebyformsaid retaining member;

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

